Sunlight and Mxit partnered up to produce a South African (not Jozi or Cape Town) version of US Grammy-winner Pharrell Williams’ hit song turned global YouTube phenomenon Happy called Pharrell Williams Happy – South Africa. It features a diverse group of South Africans and acts as a civil movement celebrating South Africa’s vibrancy, unity and joy through music and dance. For everyone who shares the video, Sunlight will donate R10 to the SA Ubuntu Foundation – so get to it!!

The Happy South Africa video features many ordinary South Africans, as well as media and entertainment personalities such as comedian Siv Ngesi, Heart 104.9FM DJ Suga and Hip Hop legend Emile Jansen who are filmed dancing to the Pharell Williams tune. The various scenes were filmed at locations across the country from the street barber in Mitchell’s Plain to the spice seller at Gorimas; including locations as diverse and iconic as Muizenberg and Durban beachfronts, Orlando Towers in Soweto, The Union Buildings in Pretoria and Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth.

The clip was shot by producer Nicki Priem and director Shamiel Soni who were also responsible for uploading a regional version, ‘Happy Cape Town”, to YouTube last month.

“Sunlight has been inspiring happiness through song and dance since 2009. With the key objective to promote unity through an act of sharing, in true Sunlight style the video is set to delight & unite South Africans through the power of music, dance & the common purpose of doing good”

– says Kerry Alicks, Senior Brand Building Manager for Sunlight.

Commenting on the initiative, Kevin Chaplin, MD of South African Ubuntu Foundation said,

“This is truly an exciting initiative for South Africans of all colour, culture, religion and language to participate in – building unity and working together to produce a country we can be proud of and the rest of the globe will continue to look to and learn from. Thank you Sunlight for this wonderful opportunity, allowing everyone to contribute to making meaningful change in this amazing country of ours.”

Mxit has created a dedicated “Happy South Africa” app serving as a catchment area for all campaign-related content including the filming schedule and sneak peek teaser videos. The app includes a competition element where South Africans can upload their #happymove pic and stand a chance to win a share of cash prizes to the value of R25,000. To date the app has 275 000 subscribers and over 8 000 competition entries have been received.

“As a proudly South African brand, we’re passionate about the millions of users that have connected through and have shaped Mxit over the years – this is why an initiative uniting South Africa with a campaign such as “Happy South Africa” is such a good opportunity for us,”

said Ben-Carl Havemann, Mxit’s Marketing and Communications Manager.

To unite South Africa ‘#ShareTheHappy’ and help raise R500 000 for the SA Ubuntu Foundation

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